ABOUT CLARE

The moving human body has always been a source of wonder to me. I believe each and every person deserves to have a joyful connection to their body and a natural trust in their own physical intelligence. I’m dedicated to showing you how to access that state no matter what challenges you are facing. My work maximizes joy and minimizes pain, helping each student to find movement pathways free of discomfort. I have a profound faith in human resilience and in the Alexander Technique as a means of accessing that resilience, based on 30 years of study and 18 years of teaching.

I trained in many different techniques before I made the choice to dedicate myself to the Alexander work. My standards for myself as a performer were extremely high, to the point of being physically destructive. The Alexander work was the perfect antidote to my own skewed attitudes and misunderstandings about how to acheive “excellence.” The Technique became the foundation upon which I built a sustainable career as an independent dance artist and is the basis of my daily practice to this day.

What is special about Clare?

THE DART PROCEDURES: LENGTHENING THROUGH THE CURVES OF YOUR SPINE

I use the Dart Procedures to help you re-balance tension in your musculature and reset the balance between the spine’s forward (secondary) and backward (primary) curves, which may have become compressed or rigid from long-held habits of use. The Dart work has also strongly influenced the way I use my hands to guide your awareness during lessons.

THE LAUNCHING PAD™ is a tool I invented to help other Alexander teachers and students use a prone, or face down position. The pad supports the primary thoracic curve and makes it very comfortable to lie on stomach or back, even if you have a neck or shoulder injury. I also use the Launching Pad for table work unique to my practice, and to encourage people to practice the Dart Procedures, a sequence of movements of which prone is an important part.

THE ART OF BREATHING: BREATH IS LIFE

There is nothing more important to your quality of life than breathing. Breathing transfers energy from oxygen in the air to your bloodstream. It keeps you alive. During the time it takes you to peruse this website, up to eight gallons of blood will flow through your heart and brain and lungs brain so that you can understand what you are reading. You wouldn’t be able to stop breathing if you tried. To simply be aware of the ongoing movement of breath in your body throughout the day is a great gift. Breath is life itself.

Every Alexander lesson at its most basic level is about coordinating the use of your body with the need for breath. The whole reason to move in a spacious and efficient way is to breathe as freely as possible, getting maximum effect and energy with minimum effort, at rest or in action. If it meets your needs, I will focus more deeply on respiratory function and vocal production. Find out more about the Art of Breathing, in which I am certified.